Ryder Calm Down
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rydercalmdown.bsky.social
Ryder Calm Down
@rydercalmdown.bsky.social
🎥 Content creator building the internet of nonsense.
📈 1.2M following the creative tech chaos
🧪 Follow if you like crowdsourced butter

rydercalmdown.com/social/
I wanted to know what was happening in the places I used to live, so I built a map of the news -> needle.news

whatdoyouthinkkkk?
July 16, 2025 at 10:22 PM
🇦🇺 Australia ✅, 🇳🇿 New Zealand ✅, 🇲🇾 Malaysia ✅

Soon... a map of all the trains in the world on trains.fyi

#trains #railfan #publictransit #publictransport #railways #railway #gtfs
June 16, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Australia 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺 - now officially on the trains.fyi map.

Sydney to start, but adding melbourne as we speak (and hopefully my old home - Perth - after that). #australia #publictransit #transportnsw
June 11, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Currently working on a 3D map to view planes landing at JFK #planespotting #adsb
May 14, 2025 at 7:54 PM
And finally - a gauge to measure my monthly credit card spending (via an API) against the amount I hope to spend in a month.

#personalfinance #iot #raspberrypi
May 1, 2025 at 7:39 PM
this gauge connects to two fitness trackers - yours and a friend's, and tells you who's currently ahead with daily steps. A sketchy implementation, but I'm competitive so I need this.

#fitness #walking #iot #raspberrypi
May 1, 2025 at 7:38 PM
this gauge checks the news of the day via an API, analyzes the sentiment of each headline, averages the positive/negative scores and shows me if we are so over, or so back.

If any headline contains the word "mine" in it, the other one gets triggered.

#iot #sentimentanalysis #machinelearning #pi
May 1, 2025 at 7:37 PM
This is at a glance where a family member is based on their location. It's a sketchy implementation so it's not fully functional (and requires them to install an app on their phone, so not ideal), but it's loosely based off the Weasley clock.

#harrypotter #iot #raspberrypi
May 1, 2025 at 7:35 PM
This one tells you what to wear at a glance based on the local weather. I often forget to bring an umbrella - so this one is a lifesaver.

#iot #weather #python #raspberrypi
May 1, 2025 at 7:34 PM
This gauge shows you when you need to leave to make your next train/bus.

It has my average time from door to train stop programmed in, and uses GTFS-RT data to update. It was the first one I made.

#publictransit #trains #iot
May 1, 2025 at 7:32 PM
I built a dashboard of internet-connected gauges to show me data - here's what each of them does - a thread🧵

#internetofthings #gadgets #raspberrypi #engineering #iot #3dprinting
May 1, 2025 at 7:30 PM
⏲️ I'm building a physical dashboard for the digital world.

What gauges am I missing?

#iot #engineering #gadgets #internetofthings #creativetechnology #3dprinting #publictransit
April 18, 2025 at 6:31 PM
I'm building a gauge that tells you when to leave to catch your train - and I am building out 5 more IOT gauges for the dashboard.

What else should I build?

#internetofthings #iot #publictransit
April 15, 2025 at 6:59 PM
pov: you're building a thingamabob
April 10, 2025 at 8:05 PM
So cool how many times others have thought of similar ideas in parallel!
March 29, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Working on one of my most challenging projects yet! Can you guess what it does?
March 21, 2025 at 6:09 PM
I've been trying to get into the habit of celebrating both ✅ wins and ❌ losses these days.

Here are two of mine from this week:

Loss - I wasn't selected to take part in Nuit Blanche
Win - I shared my dorky trains website, a lot of you loved it, and it got shared on a bunch of big sites.
January 28, 2025 at 9:56 PM
👍 fun fact: trains.fyi is having a little celebrity moment
👎 unfun fact: I cannot figure out how to tell where the traffic is coming from in google analytics

does anyone know how?
January 27, 2025 at 3:58 PM
And THEN, I thought it would be neat to store some statistical data by network.
January 23, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Then, I thought it would be neat to have some more detailed statistics and info on the trains, so I added track information, who owns what, what the speed limit is.

#trains #railfan
January 23, 2025 at 3:16 PM
I then wanted more structured data - I had limited information as to where the trains were going, and added GTFS support to the site. This is standardized data that transit agencies release with schedule info, and it is rough to deal with, but now, you can now click a train and see its route.
January 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
The data was MESSY, so I spent a lot of time on the backend cleaning it up and normalizing it so I could place trains on a map easier. I then broke the data down by transit network and by city, learning in the process just how many trains there actually were in North America.
January 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I started off with Via Rail and Amtrak, and then launched it on Hacker News where it went to the front page, which was pretty neat!

From the feedback I got from there, I went on to add more transit networks and more cities all across North America.
January 23, 2025 at 3:10 PM
About a year and a half ago I was on a delayed via rail train which was behind another delayed train, which was behind another, and I wondered what the heck was going on. At the time, there was no map that showed all trains on the same map - so on that train journey I decided to build one.
January 23, 2025 at 3:08 PM
today on my "take big risks" checklist
December 4, 2024 at 8:38 PM